Gerry1970 wrote on 11/16/13 at 17:03:46:


I get the same impression, there may just be three games left of this match. To even attempt to level the score Anand really must hit the random button hard while avoiding all rook endings...

I'd love to see a Carlsen - Kramnik match, assuming that Carlsen wraps this up.  In my opinion barring some years where his health wasn't good, Kramnik has been the best player in the "post-Kasparov" world (not that I'm really good enough to judge)!  In fact while I'm glad Carlsen is getting his shot, I personally thought that Kramnik should have won the tiebreaks in the Candidates'--why give it to the player with the most losses?

Anyhow I'm still not sure that Kramnik could beat Carlsen, but I'd at least feel more like I was seeing the two best players in the world going at it.  And while Anand is an incredible player and has had an amazing career, I don't think many people would consider him one of the two best players in the world these last few years.  

Of course besides Kramnik there's always Aronian, Caruana, Grischuk, even Nakamura these days, so we'll see who gets the next shot at the title.  I'm actually not too familiar with Aronian's play, but I wouldn't mind Carlsen - Caruana, either.

P.s. I'm going to go study some rook endings.  Poor Anand in game 6; that looks exactly like the kind of game I would have lost and not known how in the world it happened.  And I used to think I was pretty good at rook endings!

I thought Anand could draw today whatever he played but he found a way to lose

I voted for Anand +1 but now I dont think is is that kind of realistic result anymore.

Typical Carlsen again, putting the opponent under consistent pressure until there is a crack. Certainly Anand has not shown good form for quite some time and I guess this is what we see here. I believe Aronian or Kramnik would do much better in similar situations at the moment.

Ouch. I agree, he is not defending well. But Carlsen at least is creative.

Once again, Anand made several dubious choices in the endgame, then blitzed out a blunder with plenty of time left on the clock. He went from drawing comfortably to fighting for a draw, to losing in a very short span. 

I didn't believe the talk that Anand was afraid of Carlsen until these last two games. He isn't giving himself the chance to fight. It's not tiredness or age that causes such mistakes. It's either over-confidence or a complete lack of confidence. I'm betting it's the latter.

Have the feeling this R+pawn ending must be drawn, but Carlsen will try to torture him as normal.

I thought White had a slight advantage from the opening, I go away and come back and Anand is a pawn down in a Rook + pawn ending ....again! Lets see if he can hold this one.